Mayor Andal Ampatuan is still innocent until...

It’s four days to Christmas and in Straight from the Sky we follow a tradition that we’ve adopted through all our nine years on the show. For our Christmas presentation, we won’t bother you with a serious talk show, but serenade you with music and, for tonight, we bring you Cebu’s latest music sensation dubbed as the Asian Troubadours with Maestro Wilson Ng in keyboards who will play musical standards, old Cebuano music, and yes, Christmas carols.

Just last November 30th, the Asian Troubadours held three performances with their Passionata - a Cultural Heritage Celebration at the SM Theater One that brought a throng of at least 2,150 people. This was a live performance, no pre-recording or minus one and no famous personalities, but only 100% pure Cebuano talent. So tonight, watch Straight from the Sky’s Christmas Presentation with Wilson Ng and the Asian Troubadours at SkyCable’s Channel 15 at 8:00pm. Merry Christmas everyone!

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There’s no questions that the media is still angry over the gruesome massacre that happened almost a month ago dubbed as the Maguindanao Massacre allegedly perpetrated by Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan, Jr. and his close associates of a hundred armed men. Yet a month later, tensions are still high over this case and last Friday when Mayor Andal Ampatuan attended his first hearing on this case, he was virtually mobbed by angry media men who brought along colored photographs of the decomposing bodies of the persons that he allegedly executed and shoved the photographs on his face!

I submit that we in the media are only human and many of us have already made up our minds as to who really was responsible for the massacre of the 57 people whom were not only mercilessly killed, but also hastily buried in shallow graves together with their vehicles. I’m sure that Mayor Andal Ampatuan did not expect such reception from an angry media and we can only say…serves him right.

However, we in the media must still act responsibly and continue being the teller of the story or the reporter of the news. What happened in that hearing was a media that, more or less, acted like the prosecutor or the jury. This is a still a nation of laws and I dare say it here that whether we like it or not, Mayor Andal Ampatuan is still considered innocent until his guilt is proven. What we need to do as media is to scrutinize what the Ampatuan lawyers might do in order to escape a jail term. Already rumors are out that Mayor Andal might just admit to being mentally incapacitated or under drugs when the massacre happened in order to get a lesser sentence. For sure, the media will be watching this case very closely in 2010.

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With Martial Law already lifted in Maguindanao, I’m sure that life in that province would be back to normal. It just makes me wonder what a normal life is in Maguindanao without the Ampatuans in power? Surely, things should be changing there - hopefully for the better. We know for a fact that Maguindanao is the third poorest province in this country, yet its warlords have first rate, high-caliber guns and sophisticated weapons and a million rounds in ammunition that were uncovered when Martial Law was in effect. We can only suspect that government money was used by the Ampatuans to procure these weapons that could arm two battalions of soldiers.

We also know that the Ampatuans live in lavish mansions and drive expensive vehicles… after all; it is acknowledged that they are the richest people in their province. As rich as they are, what I would like to know is whether or not they are also the biggest taxpayers in Maguindanao? A couple of weeks ago, we already wrote an article asking whether the Commission on Audit (COA) had an office in Maguindanao and if they have such an office, how could COA not see the government’s money being used (or misused) by the Ampatuans in power?

In the 30’s, the City of Chicago was ruled by a mobster named Alphonse “Scarface” Capone or Al Capone whom the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) believes was responsible for the so-called St. Valentine’s Day massacre. You can say that Chicago in those days resembled Maguindanao under the Ampatuans. So the FBI couldn’t pin Al Capone on a murder charge as no one would dare testify against him.

But in the end, the FBI found another way…when they found out that Al Capone wasn’t paying his taxes to Uncle Sam. That was a charge that Al Capone’s lawyers couldn’t shake, hence, Al Capone was thrown to prison for failure to pay his taxes. I would like to believe that mobsters or warlords have the same mental attitude against the government. So maybe it’s time for the Department of Justice to look into the tax liabilities of the Ampatuans…for they might just find evidence that would certainly lock them in jail.

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